A class-action lawsuit was filed yesterday against Simplicity Inc., Target Corp., and Graco Children’s Products Inc. for their roles in the unfolding defective crib recall. The lawyer who filed the suit originally represented the family of a 9-month-old who died in 2005 from one of the badly-designed cribs, which can be dangerous if assembled incorrectly. [Chicago Tribune]

I can see suing Simplicity and maybe Graco because they are related and they did nothing about the problems, but why would she sue Target? They just sold it to her- how can they be responsible for product defects? Is it maybe because Target has lots of money….? I can see suing if the crib had been recalled and Target sold it to her after the recall. Or if Target got lots of complaints of something shoddy and dangerous, and still decide to keep on selling it. Since the article doesn’t have many details besides “Target sold the crib”, we can only guess if this is the real motive or not.

There is a fabulous line in a David Sedaris book regarding the american tendency towards litigation – that it has now become a society of “you can’t say we didn’t warn you.”

Yes, i am sorry that there was a fatality, and you *could* argue that they *should* have made it impossible to install the guardrail upside down – but really, 2 deaths over 9 years and they’re doing a recall? Why not just put a warning to be very very careful how this is assembled?

@ncboxer: (Very) Briefly, products liability law in the United States generally allows the victim to sue anyone in the “chain of distribution,” right down to the retail store that sold the product. Fault can be sorted out later among the different entities in the chain (the manufacturer, the wholesaler, the retailer, etc.) by way of indemnity.

why is it that people in this country have the mentality that if they screw up it’s always someone else’s fault? does this infuriating behaviour occur elsewhere as well? You built the crib incorrectly, and killed your infant. you then deal with your guilt by suing the people who made the crib which hasn’t resulted in any other known fatalities when assembled properly.sorry if this is too harsh for some people, but if you suck at assembling things (at a child bearing age you must be aware of your skill level) the best thing to do would be to buy an assembled crib, or have someone competant do it for you. These options do exist.

i swear it sounds like they are suing everyone in order to convince friends and family that the crib company is the evil being responsible for killing their kid, instead of their own stupidity.

This is how the legal system works in the US. As far as their own stupidity, if you had to buy a lawn mower, or a car, or similar and had to assemble it perfectly right or risk life or limb, would you buy and assemble it? I sure the hell would not. Consumer law in the United States expects that if you mis-assemble your crib, bed, easy chair, dining room table, that no one will die because of it unless your assembly was itself grossly negligent which in this case the CPA says it was not. You people are quick to attack, but one should be safe to assume that if they make a mistake that was easy to make, no one should have to pay for it with their life. Especially a baby. If it was your dead baby, I think you all would be singing a different tune. Suing a ski resort because you busted yourself up is stupid, but in this case, this is exactly why we have consumer protection laws. People make mistakes. These typ of mistakes should not cost a life. Of course none of the above commenter’s never make a mistake, right?